India Since Independence

Consolidation of India as a Nation (I)

Unity in Diversity:
1. Biggest Challenge since 1947: national unity, integration and consolidation.
2. Political, Administrative and economic unification under Mughals had developed.
3. Feeling of Indian-ness was vague and got consolidated under British due to
colonial unification of adm, eco and country wide modern edu people with similar
goals and ideology.
4. National movement played vital role in strengthening feeling of unity and
nationhood among masses due to its mass base and social penetration.
5. Process of unification would continue even after independence.
6. Indias diversity need to be used as a source of strength for national unification
rather than obstacle to overcome during national consolidation.
7. Therefore, regional identity would develop in line with national identity and not in
conflict with it.
8. Diversity may also a source of weakness which can be used by divisive forces like
communalism, etc. Therefore issues like job, edu opportunity, access to political
power, etc. could and did fuel rivalries among various groups.
9. Due to Indias vast diversity, many believed had instead of democracy,
authoritative government was necessary for holding India together. On contrary
Indian leaders believed that in democracy, every group has their voice heard.
10.Constitution provided federal structure with great deal of autonomy to state but
with strong center to accommodate principle of unity in diversity.
11.Parliament acted as unifier by acting in all India level with basic and ultimate
powers with it in making policies, programs, issues and debate.
12.Election was used as unifying and promoting national consolidation. Also,
majority of pol. Parties after 1947 were all India in character, ideology and
organization. Their mass mobilization was on all India Issues.
13.Major divide among pol. Parties and among intelligentsia was on ideological
ground rather than on caste, religion or language.
14.Class organization never threatened national integration.
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15.Indian army and adm Services were all India in character and acted as force for
forging national unity as its recruitment was on merit and not on bases of caste,
religion, etc. they had their training and allegiance to central govt.
16.Indian industry, dams, communication network and transportation system was
seen as symbol of national unity and endeavor.
17.Planning commission and govt. didnt succeed in removing regional disparities
but avoided inequality in resource distribution and hence there was no serious
discontent among the state for centers discrimination.
18.National integration also req. social justice and greater social and economic
equalities.
19.Constitution provided basis for ending social disparity by removing discrimination
based on religion, caste or sex. But there was no struggle to put end to caste
system which on one hand led to caste oppression and on the other used as caste
solidarity for election and political advantage. These remain the weakest part of
agenda for integration.
20.Secularism also led the force for unity. Govt. attack communal violence with
though hand.

The Language Problem:

1. Most divisive issue for 1st 20yrs of independence.
2. Linguistic problem was linked with edu and eco development, job and other eco
opportunity as well as access to political power.
3. Took 2 major forms:
a. Dispute over official language of the union.
b. Linguistic reorganization of states.

A. The Official Language Problem:

1. Issue was not over national language as India already adopted all major Indian
languages as national Languages.
2. This issue led to dispute between Hindi speaking and no Hindi speaking regions.
3. Issue was what should be the language of communication between center and state
and among the states?
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4. There were two main candidates: English and Hindi/ Hindustani. As it was already
decided before that after independence English will not continue in India as
language of communication. Therefore, only option was Hindi / Hindustani.
5. After Partition, Pak adopted Urdu as language of their country, therefore
Hindustani in Urdu script moved out of scene.
6. Although, Gandhi, Nehru, Subhash supported Hindustani in Devnagri script as
official language but in congress legislative assembly Hindi was decided against
Hindustani by 78 to 77 votes. Hindi was not the language of majority but was
language of largest number of people.
7. Now issue took form of time when English will be shifted to Hindi as sole Official
language for the center and among the states. Constitution decided that 1965
Hindi will replace English as sole Official language and English may even
continue after 1965 for specific purpose. State legislatures were to decide for the
state official language.
8. Non-Hindi state especially southern states believed that Hindi as official language
will put Hindi speaking state at advantage compared to non-Hindi state especially
in competitive exams for Jobs and also political, economic, social and cultural
domination of Hindi states.
9. It was hoped that with rapid spread of education Hindi too will spread and
resistance to it will die out, but due to slow progress of edu this impact was not
seen.
10.Main weakness of Hindi Protagonist was that they tried to make Hindi as official
language but didnt try to spread Hindi in non- Hindi areas. They also tried to
sanskritize Hindi in name of purity instead of making it simple. Therefore it
became difficult to learn and understand Hindi by non-Hindi People.
11.In 1956 official language commission submitted its report, recommending
progressively replacing English by Hindi with effective change taking place in
1965, which led to wide spread protest.
12.To implement commission recommendation president in 1960 issued directives
that after 1965 Hindi will be principle Official language and English would be
Associate Official Language without any restriction. In UPSC Hindi would be
alternative language after sometime, at present it would qualifying subject.
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13.Central govt. took following step to promote Hindi:

a. Setting up central Hindi directorate.
b. Publication of std. work in Hindi and in Hindi translation in various fields.
c. Compulsory Hindi training for central govt. employees.
d. Hindi translation major law book and their use in court.
14.In 1963 Official Language Act was passed which said that English may continue
in addition to Hindi, Led to disaffection among none Hindi people as the word
MAY didnt provided with statutory guarantee.
15.This act was passed to remove constitutional deadline of 1965.
16.Shastri insensitive to issue declared that PCS will have Hindi as alternative
medium.
17.In 1967 Indira, amended the 1963 Official language act to make English
alternative official language till non Hindi states want it to be. This also adopted 3
language formula for the schooling i.e. Hindi, English and any non-hindi
language.
18.Since 1967 this issue has not came up again.
19.Meanwhile English has established itself as language of communication among
intelligentsia, library language and second language of universities and Hindi has
failed in all these roles.

B. Linguistic Reorganization Of The States:

1. Pre-independence India had provinces drawn in haphazard manner w/o taking any
account of linguistic or cultural identity of people, as British contest of India
continued for almost 100 yrs. Presence of Princely states added more
heterogeneity to it.
2. Massive spread of education and growth of mass literacy can only occur in mother
tongue.
3. Democracy can only succeed when adm and justice delivery is done in local
language. This can only happen when states are drawn on the basis of language.
4. After 1919, congress under took political mobilization in the mother tongue.
5. Congress leadership before independence was committed to redrawing of
provincial boundaries on the basis of language.
6. After independence situation changed due to many reasons:
a. Partition led serious eco, adm and pol. Dislocation.
b. Independence came after ww2 led eco and law and order problem.
c. Kashmir problem and war like situation with Pak.
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7. Due to above, state reorganization went to low priority and importance was given
to unity and consolidation of nation.
8. Due to popular demand govt. setup Linguistic Provinces Commission headed by
S. K. Dhar. It recommended against the linguistic reorganization as it might
threatened unity. But peoples opinion was not satisfied.
9. Due to this congress setup JVP committee in Dec. 1948 but this also
recommended against the issue. Yet it followed that a linguistic state can be
formed if other language people involved in that state agrees to it.
10.JVP agreed on Andhra and TN formation but issue stuck on Madras, where it will
go. Govt. didnt take any action.
11.After the death of Patti Sriramalu (58 days of fast), violence spread in Andhra and
govt. immediately gave in and Andhra Pradesh was formed.
12. Seeing these other movements became strong.
13.Therefore, SRC under Fazl Ali was formed; other members were K. M. Pannikar
and Hridaynath Kunzru in 1953.
14.SRC submitted report in 1955; it recommended linguistic reorganization of state
but also having eco and adm factors. It also said that it should be done in such a
way that promotes unity and integration.
15.It led to State Reorganization Act 1956, which formed 14 state and 7 UTs. It met
all demand except Bombay and PEPSU.
16.After protest govt. in June 1956 divided Bombay into MH and GJ + Bombay city
as UT. This led to protest by MH. This scheme was reverted, led to protest both
GJ and MH. Finally in May 1960, Bombay was divided into MH with Bombay
and GJ.
17.PEPSU (Patiala and East Pb state Union) was a trilingual state Punjabi, Hindi
and Pahari. Bifurcation of this state was not linguistic but communal demand
shaped in form of linguistic demand. Therefore, govt. didnt accept it.
18.Finally in 1966 PEPSU divided into Pb, Haryana (Hindi) and Kangra and northern
Hoshiarpur into HP. Chandigarh as common capital.
19.SRC resolved all linguistic problem of state formation and led further
strengthening of federal structure instead of weakening it.
20.Problem of minority Language:
a. It was not possible to make unilingual state; therefore issue of linguistic
minority will always be there.
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b. On one hand linguistic minority need to be assured that they will not face
discrimination from majority and there culture will continue and develop.
On the other hand majority groups need to be assured that meeting the
needs of linguistic minority would not generated in separatist demand and
will show loyalty to the state.
c. Constitution provided with Art. 30 as some fundamental rights for linguistic
minority. Art. 347 say that on a demand made on behalf of minority,
president may direct that its language shall be the officially recognized
throughout the state or any part for such purpose as he might specify.
d. Center appoints Commissioner for Linguistic Minority.
e. Urdu as special case. Largest minority language. Not as official language
of any state except J&K, where Kashmiri, Ladaki and Dogri remain the
mother tongue of the people.
f. In U.P. and Bihar, it faced official discrimination and hostility. In U.P. Hindi
was declared only official language stating that Hindi and Urdu are not 2
different languages. In practice, Urdu began to abolish from primary
schools.
g. There were lots of demand to declare Urdu as second official language but
govt. countered it by saying that SRC recommends that at least 30% of
population should speak a language before it can be declared as second
official language. Nehru tried to support Urdu but didnt succeed.
h. Andhra and Karnataka govt. was more supportive to Urdu. Andhra declared
Urdu as additional language in Telegana region.
i. Urdu got trapped into communal question. Despite neglect it continues to
grow because it has become the language of films, TVs due to its inherent
vigor and cultural roots among people.

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INTEGRATION OF TRIBALS
1. Tribal spread all over India but their greatest concentration is in MP, BH, OR, NE
India, WB, MH, GJ and RJ. Except NE they are minorities in other states.
2. Colonialism brought radical change of the tribal as their relative isolation was
eroded and was integrated into British and Princely adm
3. This resulted into loss of land, indebtness, restriction of forest use, oppression by
petty officials. This finally gave rise to tribal up springs.
4. There 2 main approaches for integration of tribal into Indian society:
a. Leaving them isolated, uncontaminated and let them stay as there are. This
treats them as museum item, to observed and written about. Also this was
not possible as penetration was already occurred under British.
b. Fully and quickly integrated them in main society. This would lead to loss
of the unique cultural and social identity.
5. Nehru and Indian leaders rejected both approaches and developed 3 rd. According
to this approach, tribals need to develop but in their own way.
6. This gave broad guidelines to govt. for tribal policy:
a. Develop according to their genius and no compulsion from outside world.
b. Land and forest rights respected and no outsider can take it possession.
Market economy should be strictly control to avoid penetration into these
areas.
c. Encourage tribal language and give full support for its development.
d. Administration of tribal areas should be done by themselves by choosing
administrator from them and get them trained. Few outside administrator
can also be introduce who are sympathetic and understanding towards the
tribals.
e. Over administration should be avoided.
7. To compile with govt. policy number of steps were taken:
a. In constitution, Art. 46, promoting and safeguarding the edu and eco
interest of tribal, protect them from social injustice and exploitation.
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Governor of that state- special responsibility to modify the central and state
law before applying to these areas.
b. Fundamental rights were amended to put some degree of restriction when
applying to these areas.
c. Tribal advisory council for advising on matters of tribal welfare.
d. Commissioner for ST and SC by President to see whether safeguards are
properly implemented or not.
e. Welfare scheme to promote various cottage and small industries in these
areas for their upliftment.
8. Despite the constitutional safeguard and central and state govt. efforts tribals
progress was slow and dismal. This was due to poor implementation laws and
schemes by state agencies. Often fund allocated for tribals were not spent or spent
w/o any good result and even misappropriated.
9. Major handicap of tribal was unfamiliarity with law and illiteracy led to denial of
justice.
TRIBALS IN THE NORTH EAST:
1.

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